Objective: Save you time and money.
Time is money and the biggest time waster is parallax. Parallax is the relative change in position of objects far to near. You may have heard that parallax is not important. In some ways they are right. However, if you want the ability to have something in the foreground, something in the middle, and something in the background, removing the parallax is imperative. Another place parallax shows up is for example a fence or a pole where there is a split between 2 images. After doing over 200 tests over 4 years, it’s always the parallax that resulted in the greatest time waster and even some failures. I found most of the procedures on line and in books were incomplete. I’ll be showing you additional tests I’ve developed.
While you’ll still learn a lot using the simple panorama head, to get the most out of the workshop it’s best to come with a full spherical head. I’ve seen these heads go for anywhere between $95 to over $1000. A good solid head with add-ons should cost between $300 to $450. The simple panorama head uses a micro focus rail around $27.
There are cameras starting at $150 that clam to make the spherical 360° x 180° panoramas. The only advantage these cameras have is they solve the parallax problem. However, there may be issues with the tripod. Additionally, the resolution is no where near what a stitched panorama can produce. Many times, these cameras are good enough. As professions, when is “good enough” ever good enough?
Hopefully, the cost of this workshop would be offset by saving you time and money.